The Blue Ridge Fellowship has been distributing posters throughout the area to advise everyone that beginning June 13, they would provide a place to cruise and park for the young people of this area (ages 13-20 only).

This program, designated as Cruisin’, will provide free food, fun and music from 7 to 10 p.m. in a safe, supervised environment at its location at 5357 Glendale Road, Woodlawn.

Our legal system is based on the idea that a person convicted of a crime can be rehabilitated after accepting their punishment and paying their debt, but as a society we are sometimes reluctant to allow that punishment to end when the sentence expires.

Some Hillsville Fire Department volunteers are threatening to walk away from the agency now that a suspended member has been reinstated. Roger Hawthorne is back on call after pleading guilty to an embezzlement charge unrelated to the fire department.

These past two weeks — bookended by the dedication of a veterans' monument in Galax on Memorial Day and the 65th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of World War II on June 6 — have reminded us all of the debt we owe the men and women of our armed forces, especially those who served in the second world war.

More than six decades later, a great deal of the world is free due to the actions of World War II veterans.

Recently we had the privilege to work with Judy Moser, physical education teacher and librarian at Mount Rogers Combined School, as a team of chaperones for the “Mountain to the Bay” field trip to Tangier Island Combined School.

Ms. Moser has been an active, dedicated teacher and tennis coach in Grayson County Public Schools for 28 years.

Her most recent endeavor was a trip of a lifetime for students at Mount Rogers Combined School.

In response to the May 18, “Junkyard ruining Cana,” by definition, entrepreneur means, “a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, esp. a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.”

The junkyard in Cana has been in business since 1986. As the sign near the state line indicates, “Entering Virginia’s Entrepreneurial Region,” that is just what owners of the junkyard are, entrepreneurs.

Helping the elderly — especially those on fixed incomes — is something to be commended, even as Grayson County leaders prepare to ask taxpayers to sacrifice more to pay the bills.

Grayson supervisors are looking to increase the personal property and real estate tax rates, raise the cost of county decals and begin charging a fee for garbage collection, but they are concerned about the elderly.

I was entering Cana on U.S. 52 North and I noticed a sign that read “Entering Virginia’s Entrepreneurial Region.”

This sign is located right next to the biggest eyesore in Carroll County.

I have counted a total of five fields full of junked buses, fire trucks, ambulances and garbage trucks. If we are supposed to be the Entrepreneur Region of Virginia, then we must clean our county up and hide this eyesore.

There have been plenty of reasons voiced and printed as to why Spirit Harbor should not be given a special use permit (see The Gazette article, “Citizens Appeal Rec Park Decision” in the April 24-26 edition).

It seems the definition of this development is described in different ways, depending on what side the person who is describing it is on. I find that calling Spirit Harbor a recreation park is kind of misleading.

Carroll County's Adult Education Center offers local residents an opportunity to go back to school and improve marketable skills.

The center at 787 Woodlawn Road offers help with Algebra and geometry, basic computer skills, GED preparation, reading and writing, sciences and more.

A report card issued by Virginia grading adult education centers says that Carroll's program fell just a few points short of achieving a perfect score. The grading curve was a 50-point scale, Carroll earned 46.29 and the state average is 37.5.

But I can’t say that about the wonderful production of the play “Greater Tuna” by the Galax Theatre Guild.

To say the least, the characters of disc jockeys Arles Struvie and Thurston Wheelis of the OKKK radio station were impeccable with their timing as the show opened with the radio broadcast. Actors Arthur Pemberton and Randy Carico are certainly talented.

With the methamphetamine trafficking problem in Galax once again in the media spotlight last week, some smoldering sentiments reignited for those who believe more could have been done to prevent Mexican drug cartels from establishing operations in the city.

Many feel that police could have done more earlier in the game, but what critics don't consider is that this level of organized crime was something new and unfamiliar in Southwest Virginia, and the cartels counted on rural law officers' inexperience to help them stay hidden.

A group of organizers are providing the perfect opportunity for locals to give back, as well as the possibility of getting much more in return.

There's no better way to gain the satisfaction of helping out, make friends, build a resume, find job connections and — if you're new in town — get acquainted with the community and its local organizations than through tomorrow's volunteer fair.

While some are unaware of the services provided by the Woods River Chapter of American Red Cross — which serves Galax, Grayson, Carroll and Wythe counties — to others, especially people who have received help after losing their home or even their job, its efforts are evident.